Desert Ramen:Chunin Exam in The Sand
by Greyandyang
Summary: The Story takes place during the second chunin exam to take place after Naruto has left to train. see how the characters got to be chunin and please review. look forward to romance and more action later on.
1. Chapter 1: Enter the Chunin

The Chunin Exam

"Lady Tsunade, I've took your advice and planned early for the chunin exam."Sakura said softly

unaware of her Master's mood.

"Wise choice Sakura, let me hear it" Tsunade said rather calmly.

"As you know Gaara of the Sand, Neji Hyuuga, Chouji, Shino and Lee have already passed the exam earlier this year in the winter exam. So that leaves Ten Ten, Ino, Hinata, Kiba and myself from the leaf village. According to Shikamaru, Temari and Kankuro will be entering this year. They hesitated in entering the last exam because their brother was adjusting as Kazekage. Ino thought that she should enter when all the tough ninja were downsized and Hinata and Kurenai were practicing new techniques. Kiba had a ritual with Akamaru last time and I was studying medicine with you and Shizune. Ten Ten had the same theory as Ino and of course we know that Ino stopped pursuing medicine and learned tracking from her dad."Sakura paused taking a deep breath and then flipped through her notebook.

"Any way, The Sand has really hushed up the test in the chunin exam but I over heard Temari planning the exam with Shikamaru who is our ambassador. The first exam will be a written test on ninja history, the second will be a survival exercise I think, and the preliminaries will be in a elemental arena of some sort. They only go to the finals immediately if the number of shinobi is extremely low. The Sand village states that you can be in a group of three or less so Hinata, Kiba and I will work together.

"Excellent work Sakura, you have two weeks left before we leave so be prepared."Tsunade said with a smile.

"Thank you master."Sakura replied

"One more thing. I have a letter here from Naruto for you. Also work on that summoning jutsu."she said to Sakura and handed her the letter.

Sakura walked home rather quickly that day, it was like an adrenaline rush. Was she expecting leads on Sasuke or just to here from Naruto. She had no clue. She ran up to her room with her body feeling unusually fragile. She flung herself onto the bed and ripped open the letter.

_Dear Sakura,_

_It's been a year since I left the village and tons of great stuff is happening to me._

_My summoning is at it's best, I learned how to do scroll sealings, I have a wicked new rasengan_

_and I've been working so hard my outfit tore and I had to buy a new one. I just came from the Snow Village and we are heading toward the Tea country. I can't tell you exactly where because this letter may get intercepted says Jiraiya. I'll get even stronger so we can get Sasuke back and tell Granny Tsunade and Kakashi sensei hello. _

_Naruto_

Sakura folded the letter neatly and placed it between her medical journal. She chuckled to see the ramen liquid all over the paper and her eyes watered to know that Naruto was alright. She completely forgot about Sasuke and maybe she soon will.

Two weeks later Sakura found herself with Hinata and Kiba 2:00am. The Chunin exam was going to be in two days and it would take three days to get to the Sand, but Tsunade had her shortcuts. Sakura and friends were leaving with Tsunade's transport guard because as Hokage she was invited to be a judge. The other leaf teams were responsible for getting their themselves but because Sakura was close to Tsunade she got to to tag along. They were carried in a large brown carriage with two white horses and had an exceptional guard team that left no blind spot for attack. Kakashi and Kurenai in front to detect gen jutsu and because they have the sharpest sight. Asuma and an anbu blackcop hand picked by Tsunade were behind to deal with stalkers and Shizune driving the horses. Not to mention Ton Ton's sharp senses and a brown slug with sensitive smell lied on the roof ready to inform Tsunade.

"Summoning jutsu: Pakun" Kakashi shouted whilst placing his hand firmly on the ground. A large poof of white smoke appeared revealing a small brown talking dog, dressed in a blue shirt with droopy ears and eyes.

"Hey Kakashi long time no see." Pakun said in his slightly deep edgy voice.

"Scout five miles ahead and report back."

Got it boss."Pakun replied and then instantly disappeared.

Sakura, Hinata and Kiba were starting to get really bored in the carriage now. It had been two hours now and they were crossing through a sand storm.

"Lady Hokage, am, I, I, just wanted to know um why you um, needed so many guards." Hinata asked shyly.

"As Hokage I have many allies and even more enemies. The Sand is perfect for shinobi to attack me. I am in almost every enemy country's BINGO book wanted dead and who ever kills me gets a big reward. Therefor I can not take any chances."Tsunade said politely patting Ton Ton's neck.

"Okay you three get out."Tsunade said while pointing at the door.

"What."Kiba replied in shock

"You need some experience in a different environment so get out."

They jumped out of the moving carriage to meet Shizune weeping in fear and the other jounin were not surprised at all. Four hours passed now and Pakun had just appeared.

"Ten enemy shinobi in the dying woods ahead and several around us"Pakun stated.

"That's less than I expected." Kakashi said.

"It's chunin level gen jutsu being cast up ahead." Kurenai whispered to Kakashi.

"Sakura give us a hand please."Kakashi asked her.

Together they released the gen jutsu and the slug on the roof top began to spit slime all around as a signal of the approaching enemies.

"Company everyone, enough for all of us."

Kakashi and Kurenai had ran ahead and ninja suddenly jumped out of the sand. Everyone was fighting now. Kakashi was fighting three at once. All three were rouge waterfall ninja, all skinny and in blue cloaks. One was bearing a large sword swinging wildly at Kakashi.

"Shadow clone jutsu." Kakashi shouted.

Now there were three Kakashi's and the original took the swordsman.

"You shall die here Hatake Kakashi. I'll kill you with my fire blade jutsu."he said.

The man made several hand seals and his sword immediately conjured flames at the edges. He ran at Kakashi with full speed as Kakashi ran to him with a glowing blue lighting blade. They struck at the exact seem time creating a small explosion. The man's sword was shattered and his body was tainted in scorch marks. The other two clones killed the two men using an earth dragon jutsu.

"What a pity."Kakashi muttered to himself.

Kurenai's gen jutsu had already effected the Hidden Rain thieves. She made each of them saw one another as her until they severed the arms and legs of one another resulting in death.

Meanwhile Asuma fought a jounin from the Hidden Grass Ninja. The man was dressed in a lime green monk costume. His head was completely bald and he had several dot tattoos on his forehead. He was almost the same size as Asuma and even had two weapons in his hands like Asuma, but they were just over sized butter knives.

"I am Teraku Venchia. My clan was raised to go all out on any enemy. Prepare to taste the sting of my

Necko (cat). The man said pointing the dull blade at Asuma.

"Hm...I fought someone of that clan before. You summon large plants unique to your personality. Your arrogance will be the death of you. Here...I...come." Asuma screamed at him and charged with his chakra knives.

Asuma sung at him swiftly, missing him nearly every time. The man kept on dodging and then was surprised to see that he began bleeding.

"What's the meaning of this." he demanded

"My chakra knives work with my natural element of wind, which means that they can cut you even if they just graze you because my chakra travels in a large range." Asuma replied.

"Let's do this then." Teraku shouted beginning the fight for the second time.

This jounin was no push over Asuma thought but he lacked stamina. Teraku finally revealed the power of his weapon he called it Necko echo (cat echo). He thrashed them together several times creating a large mass of sound waves resembling a band of cats meowing. It dropped Asuma to his knees.

"Finally my ultimate technique, summoning jutsu: Venus Diva." he said placing his hand firmly on the ground. The floor below Asuma opened up and a large brown carnivorous tree with green tentacles took Asuma into it's trunk.

"It's over little Sarutobi, I can take you off my BINGO book list now. My summon will devour just about anything in a few minutes, from ninja to large mammals. It's ov-."

suddenly an two Asuma clones appeared next to the tree. They transformed themselves into two large bulls and went close to the tree. It expelled the now covered in slime Asuma and took in the two clones instead. Asuma quickly caught his breath and placed two explosion tags on the tree, causing it to explode into hundreds of pieces.

"How did you kill my ultimate creation."He said now sitting on the ground in disbelief.

"You said it would eat anything so I made my clones into something more appealing to escape."Asuma said coolly. Teraku's dotted tattoo's began to fade rapidly, he gave a shriek and then fainted. Asuma knew that this clan shared life force with their unique summons, but only fifty percent. Asuma had no choice but to deliver the finishing blow with his chakra knives.

The anbu blackcop called Kenzou was fighting a rouge sand ninja who was also an anbu. They were matching each others technique very well. Finally Kenzou whispered "I'm bored". He formed many hand seals and used a raining leaf gen jutsu that immobilized the enemy. Then he walked up casually to the sand ninja and stabbed him with a kunai.

Hinata had jumped up on top of the carriage to stop a grass ninja from entering through the roof. She activated her Byakugan and the enemy kunoichi got into a fighting position. She and Hinata were in an amazing but deadly tango. Hinata struck her with thirty two palms and quickly diminished her chakra. The woman whited out and Hinata tossed her off the carriage carefully.

Sakura took two sound thugs at once. They were hopeless cases. The first one began with close range combat.

"Okay princess I'll make this quick." He tried and tried and tried, but Sakura was far to good at dodging. She launched a gen jutsu on the genin level bastard and he slept like a baby. The other one had sneaked up on her and was nearly finished with a fire style jutsu.

"Am coming Sakura" Pakun said running through the thick sand and jumping on his head.

"Get off you mutt." the man shouted.

"Finish him now."Pakun muttered to Sakura. She ran up to him and punched him in the stomach

insanely. Inner Sakura was enjoying this very much.

"Keep it coming, get out of here." The two Sakura's whispered softly together launching a final chakra punch that knocked the enemy several yards away.

Kiba and Shizune were doing well against Hidden Mist bounty hunters. Shizune had poisoned several and now Kiba and Akamaru were using their man beast clone to finish up the job. All of the ninja succeeded unscathed except for Asuma who needed a little healing in his abdomen . The team moved north for another six hours and Kakashi and Kenzou continued to take down a dozen ninja. They camped out near some run down ruins and cast invisibility gen jutsu as a precaution. They moved out early with Tsunade now up front with Kakashi and Kurenai telling Shizune to sleep in the carriage.

Another two hours and they reached the short cut. A sea of quick sand. The team unleashed a series of

complex nin jutsu and an underground passage appeared. In another hour the submerged to the other side and could see the see the Sand Village. They were greeted by a party of high officials are as the sand calls them higher ups. The leaf Ninja were immediately escorted into rooms and Tsunade left her V.I.P room to have a meeting with the Kazekage.

"Sakura, should we take a look around because we won't have time see the sites tomorrow during the exam." Kiba asked her.

"Sure let's go." she replied and together team Haruno left the plain looking suite to explore the Sand.


	2. Chapter 2: The First Exam Draws Near

Sakura and Hinata found the environment quite unbearable. Whilst Kiba and Akamaru were having a deep conversation about what kind of food they would have. An ominous wind blew sand all over them. This part of Suna looked decaying and filthy.

"Hey princess why don't you come spend some time with me." said a rugged begger towards Sakura. The man had got up now and was at least twice as tall as her. As Sakura readied herself to knock the man out, a series of strong wind spewed sand wildly.

"I could just posses his body you know." a voice said.

"No this is my village, I'll do it. WIND SCYTH JUTSU." a girl screamed.

The man was carried by a strong gust of wind and was crashed through several old crates and barrels. Sakura looked up in surprise to see Temari and Shikamaru standing on a high building.

"Get on the fan."She told Shikamaru

"No it's embarrassing."

"Can't take a risk can you Shika." she said daringly to the boy.

"Troublesome, I'll take the stairs.

In seconds Temari glided on her fan to join team Haruno and Shikamaru joined them in a moments notice from behind.

"Sorry about that, every country has it's shares of asses and gentlemen." She said and everyone laughed except for Shikamaru, he was to busy watching the clouds.

"This is the bad part of the village, lets get out of here and grab a bite with me and Shika."

"But weren't we suppose to-." Temari had cut Shikamaru off.

"We can do that later ." she said softly.

1 Hour Later

The party had chosen a small and quiet restaurant in the village's square and began to order. Temari said that this was one of her favorite spots, but Hinata found the menu to be a little sickening. Temari ordered her usual gizzard with ox tail, Shikamaru ordered the spicy bouillabaisse, Sakura ordered the braised ostrich bis, Kiba ordered a chicken feet soup with a bowl of goat milk for Akamaru and poor Hinata had no choice but to order the mystery meat sandwich. The conversation varied from Sand Shinobi history to leaf village trends.

They discussed every day topics, the food and of course the exam. The meal overall was alright. It had to much different seasonings according to Hinata. The Leaf's meals are simple and delicious, but the Sand goes more for more flavorful and exotic foods. The group all had a round of the Sands special marshmallow and green peppers.

Shikamaru being the ambassador had to leave early to discuss chunin related matters with Tsunade but Temari was more than happy to escort them.

"Thank you." Sakura said giving a little bow.

"No problem but, If we meet in the exam am not going easy on you."she said with a laugh.

At night Sakura was really annoyed, she was still up studying when Kiba kept rolling over in that squeaky bed of his. No doubt that he was suffering from insomnia. Hinata too could not sleep , whispering softly the rules of disconnecting chakra points.

Sakura thought long and hard about putting this team together. Kiba and Akamaru's keen sense of smell will be perfect for finding or avoiding enemies. Hinata's Byakugan will surely pick up on every trap and her tai jutsu will come in handy. Hinata has also been studying with Shizune and knows healing nin jutsu. Sakura had no reason to second guess herself and the next time she woke up it would be her chance to to be noticed. The same way Sasuke was known as

a prodigy and Naruto the boy who improved the most. She would be the flower who blossomed.

8:00 am

There was no doubt that the first exam would be a written test. Team Haruno studied together and got up early that morning to eat their breakfast. "Would it be like the leaf?" they thought to themselves. No matter how hard it was Sakura was determined to pass it. Shikamaru picked them up within fifteen minutes and took them to a brilliant looking castle at the end of the village.

"I could've sworn that space was empty yesterday." Kiba said with a frown.

"It was." Shikamaru replied. "but the Kazekage and the sand shinobi constructed it of sand, water and stone jutsu."

The building was at least five stories with sand exterior and inside was just as nice. They were impressed to see it furnished so quickly with complete bathrooms and actual windows. Although sand grains were falling from the ceiling.

Shikamaru led them to the second floor where they registered and sat in a a large waiting room. Half of the competing teams were sand shinobi seeing that it was convenient for them. All of them seemed to worship Temari and Kankuro desperately trying to say hello or stand next to them.

"Hey Sakura." shouted a long blonde hair girl.

"Hey Ino, did you just arrive."

"Ya, Ten Ten and I came with Gai."

Ten Ten gave them a little smile and they continued to watch the ninja arrive. Hidden Rain shinobi looked upon then with disgust and they witnessed a strong looking Hidden Mist team insult a Snow village girl into tears. All of the freaks were here. Kiba thought to keep a close eye on a Rock Ninja team with grown men and a all female team from the Fire village. Finally the large Entrance door opened up and the Suna shinobi cleared a path immediately. Everyone else cleared a path immediately. It was the Baki, Kankuro and Temari sensei..

"Listen up you desert rats. This whole exam is based on a point system until the finals. Fifty points for this written exam, fifty for the survival exercise and fifty for the preliminaries." He shouted calmly.

"Thats absurd."someone shouted.

Every head turned to see who it was but after Baki cleared his throat they ignored the outburst and concentrated on what he had to say.


	3. Chapter 3:The Written Test

Author Notes

If you did not notice Ino is a tracker ninja and not a medic nin in my story. However I gave Hinata the ranking of a medic nin. The conversation Sakura heard Temari and Shikamaru discussed about the exam is not accurate so she does not know exactly what is coming on the test. T also wrote out some of the questions and answers as examples.

b

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g

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"As I was saying. The exam consist of twenty five questions. To pass the exam you need to answer at least eighteen correct to be safe. Actually you don't have to write anything at all."

"What?"Sakura said out loud unknowingly. She felt like an idiot for putting herself on the spot. Suddenly all eyes were on her as if she had dressed in a Halloween costume to a formal cocktail party.

Baki walked directly in front of her and towered over her like a hawk watching his prey.

"If you refuse to write down any answers, then you must score a perfect score of fifty points on each of the other test." He said almost speaking down her throat

"So in other words we need a score of 100 and above to get into the finals." She asked regaining a little of her confidence.

"Exactly Cherry Blossoms." Temari and Kankuro laughed immediately. Their sensei never had a problem of expressing what he thought and always made crude jokes deliberately.

"Okay maggots. Enter the door on your right and sign the register, except for the Sand Ninja who have done that earlier this week. Sit where you like and I personally encourage you to cheat. If I see you cheat once then I'll tear your paper in half, torch it and scatter the ashes. I'll meet you inside." he said no longer smiling.

"Gees, the introduction was tough enough and now he's our prompter too." Ino said signing the register.

"I know right. He's just trying to break us down so the sand can win the exam, but over my dead body." Ten Ten exaggerated.

"Remember the formation everyone" Sakura said softly.

"Right." the leaf nin replied.

The group sat in a perfect triangle with Sakura out font. They had went over this several times and they had known that every chunin exam had a written exam at some point. A thin bald man wearing a long black desert cloak handed out the thin exam test papers and after a series of last minute questions everyone was told to begin and a large forty five minute count down clock appeared.

Sakura, Ten Ten and Hinata began immediately, their consistency was necessary for the plan.

Sand History

Who founded the Sand?

Name the two legendary siblings?

What is the importance of Trade between the five great nations?

Name the Most Noble House in Suna?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Damn it." Sakura said silently. She scratched her left ear and coughed twice and one portion of their plan began.

Hinata used Byakugan to scan Temari's paper and copy the answers quickly. Kiba who was sitting behind her had Akamaru on top of his head to see what Hinata wrote and then Akamaru told him. He reflected his answers on his head band to Ten Ten and she transferred it Ino. Sakura could not risk turning around to get the answers. She would just wait for Ino to write it in when she took over her body.

The next six questions were basic shinobi rules about the code and conduct that each village had. Sakura and Temari were going through the test the same time. Vigorously and confidently. Question eleven was one of the team's favorite. Name the Leaf's Legendary Sanin. Another four questions were about ninja simulation. Most like "If a ninja threw a kunai at the same speed of an opposing shuriken but if the kunai's weight exceeded that of the shuriken, which will exert the most force.

With help from Sakura they passed the series of difficult questions. Then there were another five questions testing decision making that they some how figured out.

Two more on ways to dispel gen jutsu and another one describing any famous clan in one of the five great nations which was simple for the leaf and the last was a long fill in chart about income and percentage of missions in various places. In the last ten minutes Ino possessed Sakura's body and wrote the answers to the first four questions Sakura didn't get and then returned to her body to write down the answers.

Time was up and the leaf smiled because they knew of their success. Baki got up and wrote on the chalk board. "Let's See Who Got Caught."

The team flinched as they saw about a dozen papers all around them flutter in the air, tear in half, burn and then the ashes scattered all over.

Hinata was nervous and was expecting her paper to do the same but they were safe.


	4. Chapter 4:Drama in the Cafeteria

The Leaf Ninja left the examination room with high spirits, a boost of confidence and empty stomachs. They followed the crowd into a big open Cafeteria where they would eat and wait for the results for the next hour or so. The room's walls were made of fragile light brown sand and the floor of hard black stone. There was an assortment of vendors serving different foods and every single team was now eating and chatting at their own separate table.

This room was one of the better eye pleaser's of Suna. The tables were all made from mahogany and well polished. Rare desert flowers were nestled upon the many window counters and the glass statues of past Kazekage was breath taking.

The Fire Village kunoichi were busy were in a serious argument about what the survival exercise would be about. They sure seemed confident in their abilities Sakura thought. One of the kunoichi was very carefree and depressing, she suggested slow death and never once laugh or smiled. There was a extremely perky one who strayed from the topic and pointed at boys and giggled. The leader of the three kept slamming her fist on the table and argued with the two in a respectful but still rather harsh tone of voice.

An all male adult Rock Village Team devoured their food sloppily and kept going for seconds. Hidden mist ninja were busy meditating and the sand shinobi talked the loudest like they owned the place. Temari and Kankuro were casual and were practically being worshiped by other sand shinobi, but they ate normally and talked a little. The other leaf team, which was team 27, the new rookies eagerly awaited the results and sat behind team Haruno like a shield.

Just as things seemed to get a little boring, a shrieking scream captured everyone's attention. Temari was overshadowing the most perky of the fire ninja girls with her plate slanted and all of her food dumped on the girl.

"Call the sand ninja brainless and the Kazekage a freak once more and I'll beat you down myself. I suppose I can't stop them either." she said looking beyond her shoulder where every single Sand Ninja were standing making combat gestures and clapping for Temari.

Another Fire Village Team came to backup their allies, but Kankuro stood beside his sister and dropped his gourd just in case.

"I doubt Gaara would approve, but if we must then we must." he said smirking.

"Tylee are you alright." the leader kunoichi asked.

The frustrated Tylee took the bowl of chocolate pudding off the table and dumped it on Temari's white outfit. It took a full band of seven Suna male shinobi to hold Temari down from smacking Tylee with her fan. All hell was about to break loose.

"For your sake Temari, they are gonna keep you restraint because your to close to becoming Sand

Ambassador." Kankuro stated to her.

Temari yelled some heavy words and stomped her feet in rage. The war was on. About two dozen Sand shinobi ran at the Fire Shinobi to begin an immense war but as they were about to clash a barrier of sand stopped them. Sand ninja shook in fear as they saw the third eye hovering above them. The other ninja were clueless to what this meant, but seconds after that Baki appeared.

Although Temari expected it she was still annoyed at his speech of disappointment to the Sand for being so reckless towards another village and almost getting disqualified. No doubt that she would hear if from Gaara again. After Baki let out some more steam he announced who passed the exam. Everyone sat down quietly and awaited with nervousness. The list began with those who got a perfect score. The leaf team, the fire team and Temari and Kankuro received top points.

They all jumped in excitement. A lot of hidden mist, hidden rain, grass ninja and Suna ninja passed as well. The majority passed with alright marks but there were a few individuals who got points less than twenty and broke off in tears or hung their heads in shame.

"Congratulations to all of you who found success. However, there was no pass or fail in this exam unless you were caught cheating. But in the next exam, you'll be playing at whole different shogi match. Each team receives a scroll with a riddle to determine the second examination, which will be held tomorrow at noon to the top of Mt. Kaze Sode. Your prompter will be the Honorable Tensou, Master Shamen of the Winds and he will be assisted by the great lord Kazekage. Get some shut eye and solve the riddle." He gave a uniformed salute and vanished with a small gust of wind. Every team took a scroll from a sand jounin as they left and opened it quickly. It included text as well as images that would be hard to decode. From now on the game was on and it would be go big or go home.


End file.
